After periodic floor closings, department relocations and additions, Children’s Hospital’s $31.8 million, three-year expansion project is now complete.

When the project began in 2002, Children’s Hospital was a 169,700-square-foot, 122-bed facility; the hospital now boasts 285,500 square feet of space and 152 licensed beds. The hospital constructed an additional 115,800 square feet of new space in a seven-story tower at the corner of Clinch Avenue and 20th Street on a lot that was once a parking lot, constructed a third floor over the existing two-story Emergency Department/Outpatient Clinics wing and renovated 110,700 square feet of the existing facility. The project also included a new outdoor courtyard, which can be accessed from Second Floor West and the Outpatient Clinics and via a balcony on Third Floor West.

Throughout this lengthy project, Children’s Hospital has undergone significant changes to better serve the region’s children and make the hospital more child- and family-friendly. All major departments were expanded during the project. Among the most notable changes:

• GROUND FLOOR -- The cafeteria and kitchen were significantly enlarged, offering more space for storage, cooking, serving and dining. Additional food and beverage items were added in the enlarged servery area.
• FIRST FLOOR -- The Emergency Department increased from 18 to 35 beds, with all its space on the hospital’s First Floor instead of on two separate floors.
• SECOND AND THIRD FLOORS – The general medical units on these floors now have a total of 76 new and renovated patient rooms. All inpatient rooms are now private and feature full bathrooms. Six rooms on each floor are larger to accommodate more medical and supportive equipment or to allow ill siblings to share a room. There are also 14 private 23-hour admission rooms on these two floors.
• FOURTH FLOOR -- Outpatient Surgery expanded from 16 to 27 semiprivate rooms, offering the capacity to handle 54 patients daily. Inpatient Surgery was moved from Second Floor to the expanded Fourth Floor, and it features 19 private rooms. Fourth Floor also includes 6 larger rooms for equipment or siblings.
• FIFTH FLOOR -- The NICU grew from 36 to 44 beds. This project also includes the addition of two rooms for parents to stay in with their baby before discharge, called “rooming-in rooms.” The PICU expanded from 9 beds in a ward-style unit to 13 beds, including 10 private rooms and one three-bed room. The private rooms are large enough that most patients may have a parent stay overnight with them in their room, a family-friendly option that was not available in the former unit due to its small size.
• SIXTH FLOOR -- The surgery lounge was enlarged, the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (“recovery room”) was expanded, and an endoscopy suite was opened.

Hospital-wide, many other changes took place:

Renovations and new construction brought a colorful, child-friendly new décor to the hospital, with themes ranging from the ocean (Emergency Department) to space (Second Floor) to the jungle (Third Floor). New paint, wallpaper, flooring, furnishings and artwork are visible throughout our pediatric medical center.

Family-friendly spaces were added or expanded throughout the hospital. Playrooms were added and enlarged, and family kitchens were added on the inpatient floors, while a greatly expanded lounge was added on the Fifth Floor for families of patients in the NICU and PICU. This lounge features a sitting area, a separate sleeping area, kitchen and laundry facilities.

Storage, support and staff spaces also were enlarged and improved throughout the hospital.

All patient rooms now feature TV/DVD player combos instead of TVs and separate VCRs. A closed-circuit digital television system has been installed, thanks to a $75,000 contribution from the Children’s Hospital Auxiliary. The new system allows patients to choose from a wide range of cable channels right in their room. The system also will soon offer a variety of in-room movies and several channels for patient education.

Because of our medical center’s growth, Children’s Hospital also has updated its telephone system. All patient rooms are now called by dialing (865) 246-7 and the patient room number.

Over the past several years, Children’s Hospital has also completed other construction projects that have dramatically changed the face of our Clinch Avenue campus: In late 2001, the hospital opened a 500-space employee parking garage on White Avenue. The new garage opened up spaces in the hospital’s existing Medical Office Building garage for more patient family parking. In mid-2002, Emergency Department and Outpatient Clinic parking was moved from its longtime site at the corner of Clinch Avenue and 20th Street to an expanded lot formerly used for employee parking at the corner of White Avenue and 20th Street. To accommodate this change, the city of Knoxville converted 20th Street between Clinch and Cumberland avenues to a two-way street.

In early 2003, a significant expansion of the Koppel Plaza hospital office building was completed. The 42,000-square-foot project included an addition to the back of the existing three-story structure as well as two additional floors constructed on top of the building. A number of hospital departments, one physician office and conference/education spaces were relocated to this building from the main hospital and the Medical Office Building.

In mid-2003 the Children’s West Surgery Center opened at Pellissippi Parkway and Westland Drive, the location of the hospital’s new satellite campus, Children’s West. The center, which features two operating rooms and capacity for a third, is a joint venture of Children’s Hospital and 14 area surgeons and dentists. It is one of only about 10 outpatient pediatric surgery centers in the country.

In early 2004, the Children’s Hospital Rehabilitation Center moved into a new building at Children’s West. The 22,500-square-foot, one-story facility was designed for children ages birth through 21 with a variety of special needs. The Rehab Center’s day treatment program for medically fragile children, Children’s Corner, increased its patient capacity from 15 to 27 children daily at the new location. Other additions to the center included individual treatment areas; a parent conference room with an extensive video library; a computer lab to help children use technology for greater independence; state-of-the-art computer technology for rehab staff to use in working with patients; and a therapeutic playground to provide handicapped-accessible opportunities for children to play with others and build skills in independent movement with wheelchairs, crutches and walkers. The center hopes soon to add an indoor pool for water therapy sessions.

A great deal of emphasis was placed on interior design for all the hospital’s new and renovated facilities. In 2004 the Tennessee Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers and the International Interior Design Association honored the interior designers who designed the interiors for the two facilities at Children’s West. Susan Ballard and Rebecca Tinsley of Corporate Interiors, Inc., won a Silver Award for the interior design they created at the Children’s West Surgery Center and a Bronze Award for their interior design of the Children’s Hospital Rehabilitation Center.

Interesting facts

• Children’s Hospital has more than 1,224 doors.
• The hospital has 880 plumbing fixtures throughout the entire hospital.
• If all the pipes used for the hospital’s plumbing were extended, they would measure 20 miles.